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The film 4 Devils was released in 1928 by Fox Film Corporation. Directed by F.W Murnau (Sunrise, Nosferatu), the circus-themed melodrama was a full-fledged Hollywood production of the late silent era. After its release, the film disappeared, and remains 'lost' to this day.

85 years later, composer Robert Stillman, writer/printmaker Anna Fewster, and bookbinder Sarah Bryant conjure 4 Devils back into existence with 'Leap of Death', a limited edition bookwork/LP that resurrects the lost film as 'imaginary fragments' of original music, image and text.

Drawing inspiration from existing 4 Devils archive materials such as scripts, production stills, and promotional materials, as well as from Les Quatre Diables, the 1890 Herman Bang novella upon which the film script was based, Stillman, Fewster, and Bryant's work reconstitutes the 4 Devils as an impressionistic 'atmosphere' of black-and-white trace monotype images, letterpress text, and through composed music, inviting an interpretive, non-linear experience of Murnau's story-world.

The bookwork/LP was created as a limited edition of 50 numbered copies, each consisting of one vinyl LP, six booklets, and three posters, collected in an orange clothbound enclosure.

The work also exists in digital form as the website www.robertstillman.com/leapofdeath, and is performed live by Robert Stillman and the Archaic Future Players as a 44-minute musical score with projections.

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Archaic Future RecordingsKent, UK

ARCHAIC FUTURE RECORDINGS is a label for releasing new music and sound.Physical releases
will exploit the advantages of physicality, incorporating found materials and artisanal craft into the packaging and presentation of the media.Digital downloads also available!...more